Scott Roeder testifies at his trial in Wichita, in January. The convicted killer of Dr. George Tiller has little sympathy for the family of his victim, comparing them to the relatives of a hit man in a recording posted online on Feb. 8.

WICHITA (AP)  A judge has sentenced an anti-abortion zealot convicted of murdering a prominent Kansas abortion doctor to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 50 years.

Scott Roeder faced a mandatory life prison term for gunning down Dr. George Tiller in the back of Tiller's Wichita church last May.

Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert could have made the 52-year-old Roeder eligible for parole after 25 or 50 years. He gave him the harsher sentence because he said the evidence showed Roeder stalked Tiller before killing him.

Roeder testified that he killed Tiller because he felt doing so would protect unborn children.

Roeder has admitted he shot and killed Tiller last May in the foyer of the Wichita church where Tiller was serving as an usher. Roeder was expected to testify again Thursday and speak about his beliefs.

Several of Roeder's friends and fellow anti-abortion activists have said Roeder asked them to testify as character witnesses — although it's up to the judge to decide how much, if any, such testimony he will hear.

Lee Thompson, an attorney for the Tiller family, declined to discuss any plans for statements to the court during Thursday's hearing.

Law enforcement officers had explosive-detecting dogs sniffing reporters' equipment before the hearing. Four Sedgwick County sheriff's deputies were on duty outside the courtroom Thursday, along with several agents from both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Prosecutors seeking the harsher sentence must show an aggravating circumstance, such as whether Roeder stalked his victim before killing him. Roeder testified in January that he had previously taken a gun into the doctor's church and had checked out the gated subdivision where Tiller lived and the clinic where he practiced.

Although he could spend the rest of his life in prison, Roeder may have gotten what he wanted all along: In the months since Tiller's death and his clinic was closed, it has been markedly more difficult to get an abortion in Kansas.

The state was left with no facility where women can have the late-term procedure. Just three clinics in the state — all located in or near the Kansas City area — offer limited abortion services for women up to their 21st week of pregnancy.

An early vow by one of Tiller's contemporaries to fill the gap hasn't materialized, and state lawmakers are moving to enact tough new rules to dissuade other doctors from taking Tiller's place.

But outside Kansas, abortion-rights supporters say there's been a surge in late-term abortion practices by doctors emboldened to pick up where Tiller left off.

"What he really did was murder a doctor in church, and the effect on abortion is negligible," said Dr. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska doctor who worked part-time for Tiller and said he hasn't given up on the idea of opening a practice in Kansas where late-term abortions would be performed.

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